14 replies to this topic

[Blue Pheonix]

I have noticed that the quality of matches after about 11pm US Central Time is absolutely terrible. Even after 10pm they are bad.

During this time period, the games seem tremendously unbalanced and lopsided (5 - 12, 3 - 12, 6 - 12 etc.). No this is not something that just started but has been an issue since I started playing. It is something I have wanted to post about for the longest time but just have not.

I usually play during the day (4pm - 8pm) and while yes, you still get stomps from time to time, the quality of the games seem much more consistent and seems more competitive and fun during the daytime (US Time zone). A player seems to be able to have more impact to win during these time periods.

After 11pm and later US CST, it seems which side wins or loses is set before the first shot is even fired by matchmaker. While a few are close, games overall are not even close. During this time period, there is the occasional win but no matter how hard I try, losses are regularly almost a guarantee if I bring a mech that normally has a high K/D and W/L ratio (earned in the 4pm - 8pm time period) after 10 or 11pm CST.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Edited by Blue Pheonix, 02 July 2017 - 11:03 PM.

[Davegt27]

yep

[Throbbinwood]

It's probably because that's when I usually play.

[Davegt27]

its 2:50am CST and I just logged off because I could not get a game

[Ruslan Savelyev]

Definitely see a huge difference in game quality between playing between 6-10CST and after midnight. Early games have a predictable flow; holding a corner you will see your teammates usually form up in a firing line in reasonable places, and pushing in close you will always have partners. Late games are packed with full brawl assaults sitting at 800m patiently using up the last of the ammo in their single LRM10 and entire lances that won't go through the HPG gates because of 1 Urbie with an ERLL.

Edited by Ruslan Savelyev, 02 July 2017 - 11:55 PM.

[PhoenixFire55]

Since a few weeks into PSR MM the quality of matches is absolutely terrible regardless of time or chosen server.
However, that is Working as Intended^TM.

[Gwahlur]

After 17 pm my time (GMT+2), which probably is when most european people get home from work, the quality of the games usually drop drastically.

Edited by Gwahlur, 03 July 2017 - 02:44 AM.

[Jman5]

According to the steam charts, the population hits its peak at about 9:00pm Central and then rapidly decreases until about 7:00am Central.

I've noticed the same thing. I don't play late at night very often, but if I do stay up past midnight the play quality is noticeably worse.

[Brain Cancer]

The bucket isn't full enough to prevent T5 newbies from ending up in games with T1-3 vets.

And as we know, it only takes a few bad team players to tip a game into the trash bin.

[Inatu Elimor]

I live in Europe UTC +2
Saturday morning (UTC 08.00) most of the Time all games lost. Later that day from 14.00 UTC changing in continuous win. Are Americans better players than Europeans ???

Edited by Inatu Elimor, 03 July 2017 - 10:14 AM.

[Maurice Thorez]

Jman5, on 03 July 2017 - 06:03 AM, said:

According to the steam charts, the population hits its peak at about 9:00pm Central and then rapidly decreases until about 7:00am Central.

I've noticed the same thing. I don't play late at night very often, but if I do stay up past midnight the play quality is noticeably worse.

This is almost certainly the reason if there is any drop-off in match quality. Anecdotally, there are a decent numbers of players in Europe within UTC+1 from Germany, France, Sweden, etc..., but if they are anything like me, do not touch a computer game at least before 12:00 whether they are working or not that day. That creates a large gap in the night for the west coast of the Americas where people from the Americas and parts of Asia will represent almost the entirety of players online. Population only probably starts to pick up again as you enter the daytime of UTC+2 and +3 and some Russians start to log on.

11pm Central time is pretty late really for many in the Eastern and Atlantic timezones to be on too. I only play that late on the very rare occasion these days.

That said, unless it was a few kills scraped together at the end, I would not consider a 12-5 or 12-6 result a poor match. I honestly do not have much issue with match quality. However, I do wish some players that clearly struggle to pull 250 average damage a match could be gated off somewhere else where it is fairer to them.

[Johnny Z]

Its because less players means easier synch drops!

[meteorol]

Johnny Z, on 03 July 2017 - 11:03 AM, said:

Its because less players means easier synch drops!

AND MORE RAGE HACKS!

[KekistanWillRiseAgain]

The skill level plummets because the overwhelming majority of Players have NO CLUE what game they are playing and PGI is confused as well about what game they were supposed to be designing, which is why the actually Important parts of why teams win is never explained in the tutorial and the Rewards System is broken. This is a Co-Operative Strategy game, we are playing a strat game that is about as complex as 13th century Chess (where there is some strategy beyond basically being Checkers like 11th century Chess but before the advent of gunpowder on warfare revolutionized the game in the 15th to what we know it to be today.)

[Johnny Z]

meteorol, on 03 July 2017 - 11:07 AM, said:

AND MORE RAGE HACKS!

Synch dropping is cheating to. Synch dropping may even be considered rage hacking if it is trying to cause rage for players.

I got a laugh yesterday when someone asked what a clean match was. Such great times when players publicly admit not knowing the meaning of a clean match.

Awaiting the completely nonsense reply justifying rage hacking as just a part of normal gameplay.

By the way I still play this game and its great because I don't have to deal with those running cheat programs in game for very long, they get banned for that. How ever the anger from their alts is rather annoying.

Going to play a few matches right now. Fun times.

Edited by Johnny Z, 03 July 2017 - 11:26 AM.